blogdowntown: Latest Content

If you haven’t been to the McDonalds in the Fine Arts Building, I recommend you check it out sometime. Not so much for the food (though the new McDonalds is a lot better than the old McDonalds), but for the interesting interior details. The ceiling and wall details feel more like they belong to an old church than to a fast food joint. The sterile architecture...

Everyday

Darkness on the Nickle

By Eric Richardson — January 17, 2006
2 Comments

Just an hour or so ago I was standing on the corner of 5th and Main with Town Crier Don Garza and he commented on how the street lights on 5th have been out for a while now. With all the attention being paid to Skid Row right now, how is it possible that the lights in “the nickle” could be allowed to be chronically off? That entire block of 5th,...

Everyday

It Would Be Full of Spirits

By Eric Richardson — January 16, 2006
2 Comments

Since she’s about to start teaching, Kathy needed to find a bag for carrying papers. I suggested the Fashion District, and today we spent a few hours wandering between stores this morning. She ended up finding something that’ll do the job quite nicely for $8. I understand that in the Fashion District you’re going to find a lot of stuff fresh...

Everyday

Exploiting Downtown's Unused Air Rights

By Eric Richardson — January 16, 2006
5 Comments

The LA Business Journal is running a story about Downtown air rights (free, but registration required) that talks of ideas to sell the Convention Center’s unused height entitlements to nearby housing developers. The concept involves taking square footage that could have – but was not – built on a piece of property and transferring it to other...

Everyday

What Does Convention Center Hotel Mean for Fig Central?

By Eric Richardson — January 13, 2006

While it’s definitely great to see the Convention Center Hotel plans now moving forward, Jim raises an interesting question about the specifics of the deal. nobody seems to have made it to this paragraph in the article about kb home and anschultz taking over the convention center hotel project: “To form its partnership with AEG, KB Home withdrew...

Everyday

Lawyers Set to Fight Jaywalking Tickets

By Eric Richardson — January 12, 2006
10 Comments

I have to laugh a little at this Daily News piece about lawyers being given jaywalking tickets over by the Courthouse. It seems the “County Police” (the County’s version of the General Services Police?) have been citing quite a bit lately, and the lawyers feel they’re being unreasonably targeted. I can’t speak for over by the courthouse...

Everyday

Downtown's Daffodil Blooms Under Shade

By Eric Richardson — January 09, 2006

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that Downtown’s air raid siren daffodil had been taken down, and then posted that it would again rise in a different location. The other day I made it over there to check out the new spot, and I guess the best I can say is that it’s shady. From the south (the only direction of traffic), the daffodil is now pretty much...

Everyday

No More Cherry 7-Up?

By Eric Richardson — January 08, 2006
5 Comments

One of the odder relics of Downtown is the Cherry 7-Up ad that for twenty years or so has stood over the Cameo Theatre on Broadway. Michael over at Franklin Ave summed up its odd draw back in November: Strange as it sounds, I’ve been semi-obsessed with this billboard, as a symbol of downtown’s long neglect. An outdoor agency erected this Cherry...

Everyday

One Spot, Three Shots

By Eric Richardson — January 07, 2006

A couple weeks back I posted ”One Spot, Two Shots”. It included an image in which I had taken two shots from the intersection of Grand and 6th and joined them side-by-side. This image is the same spot, with another image added from just a little over an hour ago. You definitely couldn’t ask for a clearer sky than the one we had today.

Everyday

Word Quiz

By Eric Richardson — January 07, 2006
12 Comments

I consider myself to have a fairly strong vocabulary. I’m not going to go out and win at the Spellympics, but I hold my own. The text on this part of the Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial gave me a word that threw me, though. Do you know what “privation” means? You can’t quite read the text in the photo, but the full text reads: To the brave...